New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
Computer and Information Science Department (CIS)
CIS677:
Information System Principles
Professor: Michael
Bieber
Murray Turoff, Distinguished Professor, NJIT CIS Department (turoff@adm.njit.edu; http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff)
Note: There were quite some technical difficulties setting this class up, as you see right at the beginning :-)
{slide/handout: System Components &endash; well, almost :-)}
{slide/handout: Alter's Work Centered Analysis}
* Information Systems = Inquiry Systems (See Churchman, C. W., The Design of Inquiring Systems, Basic Books, NY 1971)
Mark S. asks, regarding Prof. Turoff's sketch of an Inquiry
System (5:57)
Is it important to distinguish at this point between
information vs. intelligence vs. wisdom? Is that important?
Mark C. continues (6:27)
Well… I was thinking that was the
transformation…..you know….how well it does that will
dictate probably wisdom or intelligence...
Mark C. notes, regarding data and statistics (10:16)
A form of artificial neural networks….that's the feed
forward and backward. It's sort of like student learning. He
reinforces therefore, neurons are voting so, that will be a
non-linear version of what you are talking about.
{Slide/Handout: Example Accounting System}
Assume that our company is facing certain problems (or at least symptoms of problems):
Let's look at different aspects of systems to see if we can understand this accounting system and some of its problems.
Mark S. asks regarding conflicting goals among subsystems
(14:06)
Will something like a decision support system address that
economy by balancing the possible loss of customers because of low
inventory vs. cost of carrying that access inventory and then just
compare the two losses…
{Slide/Handout: Coupling Figures}
* internal coupling of inputs & outputs
* internal coupling due to common resources
* coupling due to a common environment
Mike R. asks regarding coupling (21:30)
The example in the middle there, what will be the difference
between invoice and information about an order, the order
information? If two databases are on par…
Mike R. confirms (22:10)
Order information is the definition of invoice?
Mark S. states concerning how much you would be willing to
spend for a system to provide information of infinite value
(28:08):
--- the most expensive
--- the most reliable
--- cost effective
(Wes Churchman)
(For an overview the various philosophies, see Mitroff, Ian and Murray Turoff, "Technological Forecasting and Assessment: Science and/or Mythology?," Journal of Technological Forecasting and Social Change 5, 113-134. )
* Churchman: Necessary Conditions for a Human-Designed Entity to be a System
{Slide/handout: Churchman's Necessary Conditions for a Human-Designed System/System Trinity)
A system has:
(1) a purpose/goal
(2) a measurable performance (outputs/effects)
(3) a client interested in its performance (outputs/effects)
(4) purposeful components/subsystems that co-produce this performance
(5) environment that co-produces this performance (especially if the environment changing over time affects the system)
(6) a decision-maker who can change the system performance
(7) a designer who designs changes
(8) the designer's goal is to change the system to maximize performance for client (designer's goals in line with client's goals)
(9) stability: designer's intentions are realizable
* The System Trinity: Designer, Decision Maker, User (Client)
Mark S. asks, reflecting on Churchman and philosophies
(39:29)
Is philosophy usually incorporated in an IS curriculum or it
should be? Yes, I just realized it is in this course but the separate
courses per se…
Bob S. jokes regarding information value (40:19)
What if...?
Mark S. then notes regarding system design and value of
information (40:41)
There's a paper we read which says the value of the
information must be greater than the cost to retrieve it.
(work by NJIT Professor Brian Whitworth)
{Slide/Handout: Web of System Properties}
* Effector Properties: Capability vs. Simplicity
* Structure Properties: Flexibility vs. Reliability
* Boundary Properties: Security vs. Openness
* Receptor Properties: Connectivity vs. Privacy
* Dynamic vs. Adaptive
(Work by Doug Engelbart &endash; Engelbart has been working on augmenting or improving people's effectiveness. One of his early developments was the computer mouse, for example. (http://www.bootstrap.org))
{Slide/Handout: Human-Tool Augmentation System}
Bieber: So if we go back to the set of system properties that Prof. Whitworth laid out, we can safely say that users want computer systems that offer capability with simplicity, reliability with flexibility, openness with security and connectivity with privacy.
This page: http://www.cis.njit.edu/~bieber/CIS677/lecture-notes/lecture9.html